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Invasion of Ukraine

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Today I was asked by ITV New Anglia West to comment on the feelings of the local Russian-speaking community on the invasion of Ukraine.

Up until two days ago, I never believed it was possible – Russia invading Ukraine, even when the sinister signs were becoming more and more conspicuous.

The shock, and shame, and despair is beyond any description. It feels like the whole world has turned upside down. A bunch of evil criminals from my native country have unleashed a horrible fratricidal war. My heart goes out to the people of Ukraine – they are constantly in my thoughts and prayers.

PS In this video, I said the truth. I was talking to the press on the third day of the war. By then, I hadn’t encountered anyone who supported this atrocious invasion.  Later on, very sadly, I discovered that such people do exist…

Autumnal colours

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Cambridge autumnal colours gradually ripen and grow warmer and juicier. Ginger-coloured mushrooms or, more likely, toadstools are perfectly camouflaged amongst the rustling fallen leaves.

The autumn term is known here as Michaelmas, after the feast of St. Michael that is marked on 29th September. It used to be much loved and celebrated with vigour and lavishness in the Middle Ages. Many a geese were consumed, apparently, as there was a common belief that a roasted goose for dinner on St. Michael’s Day would rid you of any hardships for the rest of the year!

Emmanuel College window
Emmanuel College mountain ash
Emmanuel College pond
Mushrooms 1
Mushrooms 2
Downing College gate

New year starts in October!

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Guess on what day a working week starts at Cambridge? Perhaps on a Monday? No such luck! A new academic year traditionally begins on the first Tuesday in October, after harvest, while lectures kick off on Thursday (i. e. today). So weeks are numbered “week 1”, “week 2”, etc, from Thursday to Wednesday!

During the first (Freshers’) week, hordes of students matriculate at their colleges. This means that they sign in a register. The word goes back to the Middle Ages, when unauthorised youngsters could simply walk in and start studying – magnetic swipe cards hadn’t yet caught on, I presume! This chaos needed to be stopped, and all proper students were asked to write their name in a “matricula”, a roll or register, with a quill pen.

Some colleges still keep up the tradition, although they’ve replaced a quill with a fountain pen, for the ease of use…

Students Babbage lecture theatre 2
Students Babbage lecture theatre 1
Cockroft lecture theatre
Students on bikes

Good luck to the graduates!

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Graduation ceremony is in full swing in Cambridge; slightly unusual timing but there is still a lot of catching up to do from last year. Yesterday, over 500 smiling, happy people proceeded to the Senate House in orderly, regularly spaced out groups, wearing all sorts of colour linings on their hoods – scarlet silk for PhDs, blue for MPhils, light-blue for MEds, and white fur for BAs, to name but a few. Let’s wish them good luck for the future!

Graduation in Cambridge - September 2021
Graduation in Cambridge - September 2021
Graduation in Cambridge - September 2021
Graduation in Cambridge - September 2021
Graduation in Cambridge - September 2021

No Mooore Gin

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Mooore Gin Cow in Cambridge
Hey Diddle Diddle Cow in Cambridge
Cows about Cambridge in summer 2021

No “Mooore Gin” any mooore… The colourful visitors, Cows about Cambridge, who so triumphantly invaded the city two months ago, are all now gone, and, unexpectedly, the spaces they left behind look strikingly bare.

Cambridge scientists in a shop

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I popped into Ted Baker’s the other day – not to browse through their garments, of course, but simply to look at the interior, and was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar Cambridge characters on the wall. There was Isaac Newton’s rough-hewn image with a piercing gaze, a strikingly young and handsome Lord Rayleigh, and a heavily bearded old Darwin deeply engrossed in his thoughts. ‘What a great idea’, I noted, ‘male scientists as role models to inspire the customers to aim high’.

Then a grand staircase leading to the women’s department caught my attention – and I was almost flying up the stairs before I knew it, in the anticipation of a close encounter with Rosalind Franklin perhaps, or Dorothy Hodgkin, or Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Guess whom or what I saw there instead? Just a couple of dead birds on the wall…

Cambridge scientists and dead birds: inside Ted baker's shop in Cambridge

Larger groups can now meet!

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Guiding larger groups is now possible on the streets of Cambridge. According to the new rules:

– Gatherings of up to 30 are allowed outdoors since 17th May 2021. Hence, our guided tours in Cambridge are returning to the usual group size of maximum 20 people.

– Indoor guiding (if and when it becomes possible) will still be in goups of maximum 6 people, plus the guide.

– Social distancing is still important, but it will now be people’s *personal responsibility*, i.e. it will be up to individuals to decide how far they wish to distance themselves from each other. (As a guide, I will need to make sure there is enough room for everyone to be comfortably positioned on the narrow streets of Cambridge!)

– Tracking and tracing will be carried out as before.

Guiding larger groups is now allowed outdoors

We are back on the streets!

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From the beginning of this week (29.03.2021), we can meet in groups of six outdoors, or larger groups as long as they are no more than two households. Hence, Tangential Cambridge is resuming its tours, which will comply with COVID-19 regulations. Watch this space!

Ladybirds
A small group of “punters” outdoors

Pre-Christmas Tour – December 2020

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On Christmas eve, we ventured out into the freezing streets of Cambridge for a socially distanced walk, just before the new lockdown. It was invigoratingly crisp and merry; we talked about mistletoe and fir trees, camels and festive food, myths, fables and customs, and admired some of the homemade pre-Christmas decorations in Cambridge, such as St. John the Evangelist in a Father Christmas hat on the gate of the eponymous sixteenth-century college.

  • St Benets at Christmas 2020
  • Pre Christmas Walk 24 12 2020
  • Carol singing 20 12 2020
  • Street singer
  • Shop window dog 20 12 2020
  • St John in a hat
  • Round Church holly bush 1
  • Xmas shishki
  • Xmas All Saints Passage